Stone Mountain

We took a trip to Stone Mountain Park today. Here are a few pictures. We're off to Savannah tomorrow!

Carter's First Turner Field Excursion

Carter had his first trip to Turner Field last night. We only stayed for three innings (had to get home vaguely close to bed time), but Carter had a lot of fun! While he was interested in the baseball (and the jumbo-tron), I think his favorite part was the hot dogs.

Baseball

While I feel there will be a post about Carter's first Turner Field trip, which was very successful all things considered, I must first post about my own triumph. Not ONLY was it Tim Hudson bobble-head night (I need to replace the Mark Texiera bobble-head in my office that is under constant ridicule since he was traded), I nabbed my first foul ball at a major league ball park (spring training not withstanding)! It was the first time I have ever even been close to a foul ball, and we were in the upper deck! Thanks to Dan Uggla of the Florida Marlins for sending it my way (one pitch before he hit a shot deep, deep, deep in the outfield stands-you could call it homerun, but really it was quite a bit farther than most), and thanks to dad for the great luck! All my ball retrieval success seems to be with dad (and without Park, strangely), so much thanks for that!

More knick-knacks for display!!! I love 'em!

Why this is my fault:

1. When the store was sold out of our usual eggs that come in the difficult to open container, I bought these, in an easy to open container. At least I only bought a half dozen!
2. Even though I should have been getting dressed for the day, when Carter asked me to read him a book about breakfast, I did. You should take every opportunity to foster a love of reading!
3. When Carter started down the stairs after we finished the book, I let him go - alone. Independence is an excellent quality!
4. Even though I suspected he was going straight for the fridge (and even mentioned this to Thomas), I didn't follow him. He usually just pulls out his lunchbox! I would have made it downstairs before he got anything from his lunch box open!
5. Carter LOVES eggs. Wait, that must be Thomas' fault. I don't like eggs at all!

Why this will probably happen again: After discovering the mess, the first thing I did was take a picture. And then I assured Carter that his parents will never let him starve, and he need not forage for his own food.

Oh, those poor, cage-free, sunlit-barn living, organic chickens. All their hard work gone to waste. Not to mention that it's really hard to clean up raw egg.

Arts-n-Crafts

In the last few months, Carter has become increasingly interested in scissors. A result, I believe, of my frequent summer herb clipping. So, I found him a couple of pairs of kid-friendly (won't cut clothes, won't cut hair) scissors.

This weekend has been pretty gray and rainy, so we've been pulling out all the indoor stops. Since he's been getting better at cutting, I decided it was time to introduce Carter to... the glue stick. He very much enjoyed cutting and gluing, and was very proud of his masterpiece, as you can see.

Anniversary!

Last Friday marked our 5th wedding anniversary. Sadly, we were feeling too sick to do much celebrating (though we did have a yummy BBQ dinner with Park, Ashley and Anna that night). We're feeling better this weekend, so tonight we cracked open a bottle of champagne and commenced with our anniversary ritual. Namely, drinking said champagne, watching our amazing wedding video (thanks again, Patrick) and looking at wedding photos. Since we weren't blogging back then, we thought we'd share a few wedding photos for posterity.

The Rice group (many babies)

The Northwestern group (many drinks)

Sick House

Sorry to be such bad posters. Thomas and I have both been sick pretty much since we got back from Houston (thankfully, Carter is just fine). I'd like to say I'm on the road to recovery, but I said that on Sunday and quickly regretted it. Here's a cute picture to hold you over until we're back on track.

Crush

I think Carter might have developed a little crush while we were in Houston. Together, he and Elizabeth (Mike & Susan's daughter) make the tallest pair of two-year-olds I've ever seen!

Houston Trip

We had a great time in Houston. The kids got along famously. I'm not going to duplicate any of the great pics that Rachel posted, so, if you haven't already, you must check out the photo evidence of our trip on the Kimbro blog (see here, here, here, here AND here). Here a few additional shots.

Carter really enjoyed playing with Eleanor and Thomas - and their toys!

Carter loved Chuy's at least as much as his dad and Aunt Rachel do. He had an entire bowl of creamy jalapeno dip to himself and he ate much of it with his hands. We had a rough moment when his mouth was attacked by a chip, and he simultaneously rubbed the dip in his eyes (you'd think he'd know not to put jalapeno in his eye...), but he recovered quickly and went right back to the dip.

I cannot fully express HOW MUCH Carter loved the Backyardigans show. He sat in his seat for the entire hour+ performance and was very vocal during the audience participation portions (and during some quieter moments).

Carter and T really got along famously.

I attempt to read a very strange book to all the kids.

From Houston

We're having a great time here in Houston. I won't be able to post any pictures until we get back to Atlanta tomorrow, but you can see some of the Kimbro's pics of our visit here and here.

Update: See lots more here.

Update II: And here.

Headed to Houston

We're off tonight for a long weekend in Houston. Can't wait to see all our Texas friends!

Oh, Brother

I sometimes forget that Park and Thomas are brothers. And then they'll do something like this, and I go, "Oh, yeah... they're brothers."

See who gets the last laugh...

Self Serve

It's getting easier to feed Carter as he learns how to fend for himself (and now that he's strong enough to open the refrigerator by himself). First, he helps himself to a hard boiled egg. Then, if we're paying attention, the following steps occur.

Peeling

Rinsing

Plating

Slicing

Eating

If we aren't paying attention when Carter helps himself to the egg, Carter-the-food-barbarian crushes the egg in his bare hand and lets the shell and most of the egg fall where it will (and I'm not sure what would happen after that because we've always caught him by that point...).

Blogiversary

It has been two years since we started this little virtual scrapbook. In that time, we've posted 458 entries. Over the two years, I have posted 417 times Thomas has posted 41 times (though, I’ll say, as I said last year, that Thomas takes quite a bit more time and care with his entries than I do).

We were much more prolific the first year, when we posted 274 times, compared to 184 this year. You, however, have been much chattier this year, providing 536 comments, compared to 435 last year (which brings our average comments-per-post up to 2.9 from 1.8). The most commented on post to date is this one in which Thomas wears contacts, followed closely by this one in which he wears tights and this one in which we all learn our pirate names.

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Beach Pics

At long last, here are the non-pirate beach pics. See more on the other Fowlkes blog.

The men at mini golf.

Carter's refusal to let his feet touch the sand made the weekend somewhat difficult, and required some creative thinking.

Carter tries out Anna's shades.

Carter mini golfs. His "swing" looks more like air hockey than golf.

Tips from T #2

Tip: Be prepared that when you re-insert a contact lens tainted by jalapeno, even after multiple washes, rinses, cleanings, etc., it still feels like fire in your eye.

Luckily that feeling only last about an hour until, again, your tears put out the flame.

Tips from T #1

Tip: Never, EVER, put jalapeno in your eye. Ever.

Specifically, never rub your eyes after chopping jalapenos (though I would NOT recommend putting a whole jalapeno in your eye, either).

To be clear, after chopping fresh, organic jalapenos for dinner, then washing your hands (yes, I did that to be safe), do not rub your eyes with your brand new just home from the eye doctor contact lenses that are slightly bothering you. What happens when you do that is that your eyeball CATCHES ON FIRE! Yes, FIRE!

So the first thing you have to do is remove your contact lens. Which is difficult for a contact lens newbie like me under the best of circumstances (lights, mirror, etc.). Now imagine taking your lens out when your eye is basically swollen shut, flames shooting out of it, hopping up and down from the pain, trying to find a lens case (since this is only pair of these new lenses you have), and don't forget, USING YOUR HAND THAT HAS THE FIRE OF DEATH STILL ON IT SOMEHOW!

Now the lens (just one) is out of your eye somehow and somewhere in the bathroom (I gave up on the lens case pretty quickly). Your eye is still on fire and there is still hopping. Now try thinking about what to do to stop the searing pain, deciding to call someone and trying to decide who. 911? Poison Control? Alton Brown? Ah ha, Ashley! She knows food and medicine. Alas, the Iphone doesn't have voice dial and does have a touch screen, which requires both seeing the screen and touching it (which is hard while hopping). Eventually I pushed the screen in the right way and...voicemail. Thankfully Park is on speed dial (fewer screens to navigate) and I got ahold of Ashley that way who was very supportive in saying basically, wait it out.

Eventually, my tears smothered the flames. I believe I will see again with no permanent damage. I leave you with a plea...

Never, EVER, put jalapeno in your eye. Ever.